The Law Part 4 -- Separation of the Elect from Themselves (Part 1)

There is no subject needed more by God’s people today than the Biblical doctrine of separation. Separation is one of the great themes of Scripture. Paul’s personal relationship to Christ as a bond-servant is the fruit of God’s work of grace. “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart [aphorismenos, perfect passive participle of the verb aphorizo, which means to set apart] for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1 NASB). The verb is also used in the sense of take away or exclude (Luke 6:22; Gal. 2:12; II Cor. 6:17). Observe the perfect passive tense of the participle used here. It means completed action with continuing results or completed action with a resulting state of being. The passive voice means the recipient was acted upon and had nothing to do with the action.

Paul’s personal relationship to Christ as a bond-servant is terrible in the abstract (considered apart from Jesus Christ and the knowledge of who He really is); but after learning who Jesus Christ is, being Christ’s servant is true liberty in the concrete. Self-surrender taken alone is a plunge into a cold void; however, when it is surrendered to the Son of the Living God, it is coming to understand what freedom is all about. Christ said, “and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free… If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36 NASB). Paul said to the Corinthians, “Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (I Cor. 7:21-23 NASB).

Paul was related to Jesus Christ personally, officially, and dedicationally. He was not only the Son of the living God personally, but he was dedicated to Christ’s service and message. It is to the last of these three truths that our present study is directed—Christ’s message.

Separated unto the gospel means Paul had been “set apart” by God’s grace given to him before the world began. The apostle told Timothy that “…God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed [aorist passive indicative of the verb tithemi, meaning to appoint or destine] a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (II Tim. 1:7-12 NASB).

Timothy had to battle scientific humanism. Paul said to him, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge—which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be to you” (I Tim. 6:20, 21 NASB).

Culture changes man outwardly, but not inwardly. Chemistry has given us soap, but it has not cleansed man’s heart. Jeremiah said, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9 NASB). There is nothing as false and deceitful as the heart of man. In writing to his wife, a martyr said, “Take heed of the devil and the world, but especially of your own heart.” When we understand the wickedness of our own hearts, we will never look on any person’s lewd life without saying, “Lord, have mercy on me; for in my heart remains that sin which, without restraining grace, I, too, would commit.” This was said by one of the great Puritans about himself. God alone knows the depraved condition of the human heart. Therefore, every day of my life, the Lord opens up to my view some unknown, wicked crevice of my deep and sinful heart.

The heart is deceitful; therefore, it practices deception, because it intends to deceive. It misrepresents the world and its fashions, pleasures, joys, and gains. It perverts the truth, and that is the reason why we see such widely different views concerning the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, redemption, salvation, and eschatology. It disguises the true character of sin, and every faculty is affected by its wickedness. The understanding is darkened (Eph. 4:18); its discernment is blinded to spiritual things (I Cor. 2:14); the will is enslaved (John 5:40); and its affections are sensual (Rom. 1:18-31).

Separation is one of the great themes of Scripture. Like every other subject of the Bible, separation must be interpreted. When used as a perfect passive verb or participle, it not only means separated, but Paul’s dedication was preordained. Paul told the Galatians about his subjective revelation of Jesus Christ. “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:13-16 NASB).

The gospel is to be revealed (1) to us objectively, (2) in us subjectively, and (3) through us reflectively. Therefore, we must distinguish between objective and subjective revelations. They both proceed from God, but one is in a general way and the other is by special grace. In the means by which they are wrought, one is by outward things and the other by the internal agency of the Holy Spirit. The subjects of the revelations are different—one reaches the head (objective) and the other reaches the heart (subjective). They are different in their natures and essential properties—one is dark and confusing (head) and the other is clear and distinct (heart). They are different in their continuance—that which is revealed “to” man may be lost (II Pet. 2:20-22), but that which is revealed “in” man is permanent (Phil. 1:6).

The inward separation results in outward separation. In every age, the call of God has been for His people to a life of separation. God said to Abraham, “…Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse, And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3 NASB).

Israel was told to get out of Egypt. John the Baptist stood outside of organized religion. It is not necessary to become affiliated with carnal, religious institutions in order to preach or serve. That is an error that has been perpetuated by the prince of deceivers. Christians should not support religious institutions, because they are nothing but entertainment centers tickling depraved flesh. We may not be able to explain to religious bigots why we take such a stand, but that is to be expected from the spiritually blind. It all comes to a simple question, Which is more important, full obedience to God or a larger sphere of service to man? There will be either a limited message—if we compromise, or a limited fellowship—if we do not compromise. It does not take a Ph.D. degree to understand that question. What it takes to understand the question is the grace of the Sovereign God, who acknowledges no one outside His eternal covenant of grace (Heb. 13:20, 21).

Jesus Christ led “His sheep” outside of organized Judaism (John 10). The figurative language Christ used in John 10 is descriptive when it comes to God the Father’s chosen ones. The words “sheep” and “elect” are used synonymously in Scripture. Among the Jews, there was an elect people among the persons of a chosen nation. That is what Paul meant when he said, “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants” (Rom. 9:4-8 NASB).

Peter told the converts at Pentecost to save themselves from their perverse generation (Acts 2:40). Throughout the Word of God, we run into the idiom of struggle. A confession of guilt is common with those who know the fellowship of God. The Psalmist said, “If Thou, LORD, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3 NASB). This is the cry of a person in grace.

The writer of Hebrews said, “…let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13 NASB). The believer who understands his justification and views his life against the backdrop of Divine grace will gain a deeper knowledge of his own sinfulness.

Finally, the call of God shall go forth unto Him without the camp. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her [Babylon], my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Rev. 18:4, 5 NASB). From the beginning of Scripture to the conclusion, God’s people in every age have had to fight the same battles. However, these battles are becoming more severe as time goes along.